The Importance of Eco-Design for Distribution Packaging

Introduction

This page will discuss the importance of eco-design for distribution packaging in your organization. Statistics on the economic and environmental outcomes of eco-design for distribution packaging are provided in a later article.

Packaging and risk management

To understand the importance of eco-design for distribution packaging, you must remember one simple equation:

The very function of distribution packaging is risk management. Here is a list of just some of the risks distribution packaging is designed to prevent:

 

• • Risk of product losses and damages

• • Risk of occupational hazards

• • Risk of equipment shutdowns

• • Risk of wasted financial and natural resources
    
    

Better, more effective distribution packaging is better at mitigating operational risk. This one reason eco-design considers all aspects of the packaging user’s operation to guide the design process. The benefits of sound risk management usually outweigh the benefits of a traditional approach to packaging design for packaging producers, packaging users, and the environment.

The environmental importance of eco-design for distribution packaging

The graphic below describes the environmental impacts of distribution packaging, particularly wood pallets.

Next steps

In the next article, we will introduce you to an overview of our eco-design process.

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